Bridgeport, Connecticut mayor Bill Finch said he’ll go to court to challenge a decision from the Secretary of the State saying he cannot appear on the ballot this November as a third-party mayoral candidate.
Av Harris, the spokesman for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, said Finch couldn’t run for the Jobs Creation Party because its members missed a Sept. 2 deadline to endorse a candidate, and, therefore, cannot appear on the city’s ballot in November.
“Mayor Finch’s name was never officially associated with this party through any official documents submitted to the Secretary of State’s office, so there’s no direct connection legally or through any kind of documentation that we are officially aware of,” he said.
The Jobs Creation party was formed earlier this year. Last week, Finch vowed to continue campaigning after a loss in the Democratic primary to former mayor and convicted felon Joe Ganim, who served as mayor from 1991 to 2003, when he was convicted on 16 counts of corruption. Ganim served seven years in federal prison.
Harris said Finch could appear on the ballot if he could convince another candidate for a party that did make the deadline to drop out.
Republican nominee Enrique Torres said Finch asked him on Monday to drop out so Finch could run as a Republican. Torres says he told Finch no.
